


Call To The Crows

by Aloysius



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-15
Updated: 2013-02-15
Packaged: 2017-11-29 09:59:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/685672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aloysius/pseuds/Aloysius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave and Karkat's lives become intertwined as they grow up, but life takes its path as love and pain occur.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Call To The Crows

Dave and Karkat first met when they were eleven, when they found themselves in the same class at secondary school. Dave seemed quiet and pretty much kept to himself, and somehow that made him all the more attractive to people, because apparently girls like men who are 'mysterious' and 'hard to get'. In the space of week he became the most popular kid in school, especially when he spoke and people discovered he was American, dropping one liners in a slow Texan drawl with an immaculate poker face.  
Karkat didn't like him.  
He had good reason, to be fair. While Dave was friendly and easy going with everyone else, the first time he got partnered with Karkat he glared at him the entire time. Every time Karkat spoke his answers were short and clipped, and he insulted him every chance he got. By the end of the lesson they'd abandoned the work in favour of glaring at each other across the table, neither wanting to look away first.

The first time Karkat saw Dave show any real emotion they were in science. Vriska Serket had been trying her hardest to get John Egbert's attention, and in doing so had knocked a beaker of acid onto Dave's hand. Karkat had been passing at the time with bicarbonate of soda, and quickly emptied it onto the acid burn just as Dave started to howl in pain. He grabbed him by the arm and had physically dragged him down three flights of stairs and to the nurses office. Dave glared less after that, and gifted Karkat with a bag of cookies from the school cafeteria as a thankyou.

In their third year of secondary school, the whole of year nine went on a trip to France for a whole week. Dave and Karkat ended up in a room with Sollux and John, which proved to be a nightmare. John had a portable DVD player and was inconsiderate enough to not put in his headphones as he watched his terrible movies everyday, and Sollux stayed up till late tapping away on his laptop. He did have the decency to put headphones in, but had his music on so loud they could hear it anyway. Even after they'd both gone to bed, Dave and Karkat were so annoyed they couldn't get to sleep. The first night they stood at the window smoking while Dave pointed out constellations and told Karkat the mythology that went with each one. The second night they both sat in Karkat's bed wrapped in the duvet reading comics by the light on Dave's phone. They'd only got the one pillow and Dave refused to get up and get the one from his bed until a pillow fight was initiated. They somehow ended up playfighting in the hall, Dave quickly overpowering Karkat and pinning him to floor. Karkat called him every derogatory name he could think of until Dave shut him up by kissing him. They stared at each other for a moment before scrambling away and getting awkwardly into their respective beds.  
The next day, at the top of the Eiffel Tower of all places, Karkat had stormed up to Dave, grabbed him by the shoulders and kissed him confidently in front of their whole class. The girls were outraged, and whispered loudly about how pathetic he was for throwing himself at Dave Strider, as if he'd ever be interested in a boy, least of all Vantas. They said his name like a dirty word. Especially when Dave kissed him back and they walked away hand in hand.

He first met the elusive Bro Strider around a year later. He headed to Dave's on bonfire night in the evening just as Bro was leaving for work. He flung the door open just as Karkat raised his hand to knock, and stood staring down at him silently, before turning to yell over his shoulder to Dave that one of his weird little friends was here and was blocking the doorway. He left before Karkat moved out of the way, and Dave appeared a few moments later looking as bemused as Karkat. He'd got a cookery book from the library and was carefully following the recipe for a chicken stew. He wouldn't let Karkat help, so instead he sat at the kitchen table playing video games while Dave successfully cooked a meal for the first time. Afterwards he insisted on taking Karkat to the fair and made him go on the same ride seven times before finding somewhere to settle down to watch the fireworks.

The next time he met Bro was when he ruined their anniversary dinner by shamelessly hitting on Karkat and drinking what must have been his own body weight in beer. He and Dave had a not so discreet fight, all their issues with each other from the years of living together finally coming to a head. The next thing they heard, Dirk was moving back to Texas, and Dave didn't hear from him again.

They encountered problems when they tried to buy their first home. Karkat wanted a house with a garden and a garage and nice neighbours in a friendly neighbourhood out in the suburbs. Dave wanted an apartment in the centre of the city to be close to the galleries and the bars. Eventually they found an apartment they could both agree on, just out of the city centre on the top floor, with a spare bedroom Dave could use as a studio and another he could use as a darkroom and a huge spacious living room with floor to ceiling windows along one wall and an open plan modern kitchen. They agreed Dave could decorate if Karkat bought the furniture. Dave picked light colours in his studio and the living room to make it appear larger, and chose dramatic colours for the bedroom and kitchen and bathroom, painting murals in every room. Karkat picked furniture mostly in blacks and greys, that matched the feel Dave had created perfectly. He bought a massive king sized bed with a wrought iron headboard and draped it in an expensive flocked white quilt and fluffy grey comforter, and found a little chaise longue that matched it wonderfully. Sollux had a friend called Aradia who had a friend called Equius who built them a ridiculously elaborate set of shelves that he made to fit perfectly in the corner of the bedroom. By the time they were done they had a home they were both proud of.

Dave was the cook in their house. He tried in vain to teach Karkat how, but after the third burned stir fry he gave up. When Dave had to go away for a few days to galleries for exhibitions, Karkat lived solely on take-aways, until Dave started instructing John to make extra food and take it round to him.

They got two pieces of news in the same day. Dave was informed that he'd secured his first exhibition and they wanted to hold a 'red carpet' launch night. But then they were sat in the hospital clutching each others hand as Karkat received the news they'd been dreading and went white.

Less than a year, they gave him.

They were stuck in a supermarket just inside the doors as Karkat screeched and had to rearrange all their shopping from where two of their shopping bags had split. Dave noticed a bubble gum machine filled with cheap plastic rings for a mere twenty pence, and on a whim bought one. He popped the case open to find the band was black and the fake stone red. He dropped to his knee right there in the supermarket and even took his sunglasses off to mark the occasion. Karkat dropped the carton of milk he was holding and it exploded all over the floor.  
He wore the cheap ring every single day, even after Dave had splashed out on a proper one. The two looked absurd nestled on his finger next to each other but he refused to take it off.

He never made it down the aisle. He'd sarcastically asked Sollux to walk him down, not expecting him to agree, but there he was in a sharp black suit with a golden yellow waistcoat actually looking smart for the first time in his life. When they walked in Dave couldn't help but notice he actually looked proud to be giving Karkat away, in a brotherly sort of way, but then he was suddenly on the floor bending over a body and Karkat was limp with his slender limbs sprawled out at awkward angles and Dave barely even registered the tears rolling down his cheeks.

Dave stood looking awkwardly down at the coffin. It was only him and Sollux left. He'd asked everyone to give them a minute so they we all stood waiting by their cars, their heads bowed and voices hushed. Sollux moved to drop his yellow rose on the coffin, and Dave hesitated before letting go of his red one.  
Karkat's expensive engagement ring lay glittering on his finger next to Dave's own, but the cheap plastic red and black band was still nestled where it belonged.  
Dave stared down at the coffin for the last time and whispered,  
"I do."


End file.
